Golf originated over four hundred years ago. Since then many changes have occurred in golf equipment, balls, swing methods, golf course design, construction and maintenance.
Golf is said to be two separate and distinct games played on the same course. In the first game, a ball is hit into the air for distances up to several hundred yards, herein called a “full shot”. In the second, the putt, a ball is hit to roll over the surface of a green for distances from less than a foot to more than one hundred feet into a small hole on the green, herein called a “putt”.
From the time of golf's origin to the present, golfers found the best swing to hit a full shot was to stand facing the ball on the ground at a right angle to the target with both hands holding the grip of the golf club, to rotate the body, use the major joints and muscles of the body to create leverage, to swing the arms back away from the ball and then to rotate the body and arms forward in an effort to cause the golf club to strike the ball into the air in the direction of the target and to a proper distance, herein referred to as the “traditional swing.”
During the first few hundred years of golf the surfaces of greens were rough, bumpy and made of sand, crushed rock and seashells. It took considerable force to putt a ball over those surfaces. Golfers found that the best way to putt on those rough greens was to stand and address the ball in a manner similar to the traditional swing. Since the innovation of modern machinery and superior grass growing methods, greens are smoother and modern balls require much less force to putt balls across them. However, golfers, out of habit or maybe a lack of a better method, have continued to use a miniature version of the traditional swing to putt.
The full shot uses the human body differently than when the human body is used to putt. Briefly, the full shot requires considerable rotation of the body; the major joints of the body and arms open and close in precise timing to create leverage; the arms roll over and swing in a wide arc; the major muscle groups of the body and arms contract and relax extensively; the muscles expend considerable energy to create club speeds up to more than a hundred miles an hour; while the arc of the swing and direction of the club face is controlled by the golfer. Succinctly, the full shot requires both substantial power and control.
Although some golfers today use their wrists and/or arms to swing the putter, the majority of today's two-handed putting golfers putt by slowly rotating the upper body trunk to produce a short, shallow arc of the putter head. The golfer attempts to hold his hands, wrists, elbows and arms in an inactive position so as not to manipulate the putter head and putter face. He attempts to hold the major joints of the body, except for the slow, short arcing of the upper trunk, in the relative positions they were placed at the putting address. Body movement is kept to a minimum. Leverage of body joints is not only unnecessary, it is unwanted. The arms swing in a slow, shallow arc as a result of the short arc movement of the upper body trunk. The body's major muscles do not move, except for the slow, shallow, short movement of the upper trunk. The back and accessory muscles expend the energy, albeit small amounts, necessary to swing the putter. The putter head moves at relatively slow speeds. The arc of the swing and direction of the putter face is controlled by the golfer. This restricted putting movement can be seen almost weekly on the televised professional golf tournaments. Succinctly, a putt requires substantial control and little power.
It is obvious that a golfer must use his human body in the form it exists to hit a full shot or a putt. The human body is made for survival and living on earth. It was not made specifically to play golf, whether to execute a full shot or a putt. In fact, the human body is not well formed for the efficient and excellent execution of either golf method. Some of the sources of the human body's limitations and restrictions to the performance of golf are: its many bones, their shapes and their relative location of one to another; its many major and minor joints and their relative location of one to another, as well as their various capacities and limitations; its many muscles and their capacities, limitations and relative locations; its lack of capacity to execute the precise timing and coordination required by golf methods; the body's limitations for power and precise control over the golf club; and the body's limited ability to accurately sense the existence of the external environment and the influence that those external conditions will have on the body's ability to execute a golf swing and the movement of the ball after it is struck.
With few exceptions, golfers hold the putter grip with both hands when putting. There are various methods to hold the grip with two hands. Two-handed putting provides the golfer with more than enough power for putting. The two hands holding the grip provide the golfer with opposing holding forces that provide general (but not precise) physical control over the putter. However, the many bones, joints, muscles, etc., as referred to above, contained in the hands, arms and body, and their relative locations, create vectors of force on the putter grip from many directions which makes executing a precise controlled putting stroke difficult. A putting stroke consists of a backstroke, a forward stroke, and a follow-through stroke.
The traditional way for golfers to putt is to stand facing the ball on the ground at a right angle to the target line. In this position the golfer's head is also at about a right angle to the target line. He holds the grip of the putter with both hands in front of his body with the putter face aimed down the target line. Herein this traditional way is called a “traditional two-handed technique”, “traditional two-handed method” or a “traditional two-handed putt”. He looks down at the ball and putter face with the eyes in a frontal, level viewing position. Before putting, golfers usually look over the line of the putt over which the ball will roll in order to determine the contour of the surface. However, after addressing the ball with his body and eyes at right angles to the target line, the golfer rotates his head to the left and looks out of the sides of his eyes to observe the distance, the direction of the hole and the contours of the surface of the green. From this side angle viewing position, the golfer attempts to judge the distance from the ball to the hole, the direction the ball needs to be hit, and the amount of force required to ‘sink’ the ball into the hole. The golfer then returns his visual focus to the ball and putter face in an attempt to correctly aim the putter face, judge the distance to the hole and estimate the amount of force needed to hit the ball to the hole as he remembers from previous observations. He does this with his body, head and eyes at right angles to the target line.
Traditional two-handed putting, as described above, is complicated and difficult. It limits and restricts successful putting results even for those golfers with exceptional talent, gifted coordination and those who diligently practice.
Some golfers have attempted to putt while holding the grip with only one hand. One hand is sufficient to provide enough power for putting. However, the limitation of having only one force on the grip, (as compared to two opposing forces using a two-handed method), substantially limits the golfer's control over the putter and the orientation of the putter face. For these reasons and others, very few golfers who try one-handed putting methods continue to putt one-handed.
Putting requires golfers to exercise precise and consistent movement, or restraint of movement, of multiple muscles and parts of the body, arms, wrists and hands. Such multiple use and restraint of use of body parts frequently produce inconsistent and inaccurate results in the inherently difficult performance of putting. It is common during the putting swing, that various muscles, joints and body parts will change positions, and/or the muscles and body parts will be activated at different relative times, and/or the muscles and body parts may work against, conflict or oppose one another, or any combination of the above. The end results are inconsistent and inaccurate putts. The movement of so many parts of the body in various combinations and timings is one of the major reasons golfers experience frustration, anxiety and failure in their putting. One only needs to observe golfers on a putting green to see the unsuccessful attempts made to control the putting stroke, the orientation of the putter face and the line of putt of the ball.
Golf is a game or a sport that functions under specific sets of rules and regulations established and published by old and traditional associations that act as stewards for the maintenance of codes by which its participants may play and compete within rules and regulations that are uniform, fair, equitable and enhance the enjoyment of the game by its participants. When a new putting method and putter are created for use on a golf course, the inventor must take those rules and regulations in consideration in the development and creation of that putting method and putter.
From the beginning of the research and development of this invention and considering all of the above information, the goals of this invention were and are to create a putting method that: (1) provides adequate power, (2) increases the general and precise control over the putter and the putting stroke, (3) improves putting accuracy and consistency, (4) compliments the performance of the parts of the human body and their functions with the putting method, rather than conflicting or inhibiting them, (5) reduces the competing forces of the joints, bones, muscles, etc. that exert their forces on the body, the putter and the movement of the putter; (6) simplifies the putting process, (7) improves the ability of golfers to be aware of and use their sensory capacities, including accurate visual and tactile data, in the performance of putting, (8) comply with the rules and regulations established by the governing associations that are the authorities and stewards of the rules and regulations of golf, and (9) by wholly or partially achieving these goals, increase the golfing public's sense of enjoyment of the game of golf.